Limited Express

My Dear Princess and Dear Fellow,

So I had to go into the office today for two reasons:

1. The Big Important Presentation
I had to give a presentation about the stuff me and Ellie have been doing to a w@nker. Well, I don't know for a FACT that he's a w@nker, but he's the person who insists Ellie does not need a business analyst on her team without bothering to ask me, the actual business analyst about it first. So he's definitely heading into w@nker territory.

So my presentation was not - strictly speaking - about Ellie and our awesome work. It was about something tangential which HE personally cares about. So I did talk about his thing, but mainly I wove in the thread that we are awesome, also p.s. awesome and by the way awesome. 

It seemed to work. I heard later that he was "excited" by what we had to say and loved the presentation. 

Box checked.

2. The Lead BA Interview That Wasn't.
It was VERY formal. And structured. You know the sort of thing where they TELL you in advance how they want to ask the question and how you should structure your answer. I sighed and said, "Look, he's the problem. I don't want you to meet Interview Symon because you won't be hiring that guy. He'll just be here for one day. I want you to meet ACTUAL Symon, so I'm not going to be very formal."

I was VERY nice. Don't get me wrong. So they tolerated me and liked my presentation. It made them laugh. I think I scored some big points with my answers and we had a really good time. This was my whole effing point. That if I can make them feel comfortable with me in a bloody interview situ for eff's sake, think what I can do with actual business people. And then I gave them examples of me doing just that. And THEN I showed them some glowing - and quite emotional - messages from people about how much they loved working with me. And THEN...

"Those are JUST from today," I said. And I wasn't lying. Actually, this was at 12:30 so the messages were just from THAT MORNING. 

Seriously. If it wasn't a structured formal interview I knocked it out of the park as the Yanks say. But it was. Structured and formal. So I reckon I'll get knocked back. 

We'll see. 

It was irritating that I had to go into the actual office. Important though these things were, the never-ending rain we've been having here* has resulted in land slips onto the railway line. So right now the Wellington Express is indeed a "limited express". I have to catch it a couple of stops away from Paraparaumu, which means a taxi or a bus. Which means a taxi, because the local bus service is sh*te. 

Today's blip is a picture from Paekakariki station where I caught the train. They have a rail museum there which I may have to check out one day. 

But not today. I was too busy being unstructured and non-formal. Also p.s. awesome.

S.

* Sorry to those of you experiencing drought conditions. We have your rain. All of it. All of your rain. Since about June.